GA notes 1/3/2012
First count, 7:25 127
Second Count, 8:30 133
Third Count, 9:56, 117
<introduction>
<review of hand signals>
<review of the concept of FWG and WGs in general>

WG announcements:
	Housing Crisis WG:
		Meetings are MWF @ E5 33 Harrison in Chinatown @ 5 P.M.
		WG covers all issues relating to housing, not just homeless
		Won Homeless bill of rights, passed in 2 states

	Ideas is meeting <sometime>
		Working on letter
		Series of concern that they’re indentifying from submissions
		Still accepting commissions
		Send concenrs to ndmc@occupyboston.org
		Text to 617-***-0742 <need more information from noah>

	Library
		STILL ACTIVE!
		Reading list w/ Boston Library call numbers is available
		Please put WG notes on the wiki
		Next meeting is Jan 5th at SS mezzanine @ 6:30 pm

	Restorative Justice WG
		Exploratory WG, still forming
		About resolving / healing from conflict
		Talk klayzer@gmail.com if you’re interested

	Non-Violence WG
		Sponsoring an afternoon on vision for OB community
		Orchestrated by Linda ?Stout?
		Jan 14th 12-3pm at community church
		3:15-4:45 talk about movement building etc
		If WG wants to co-sponsor,  talk to Kathy <how?>

	Faith & Spirituality
		First post-dewey meeting Sunday 2-4 at Arlington church

	Community Wellness WG
		Friday at 6pm ?maybe at E5?
		Saturday Restorative Justice-style meeting at ?maybe E5?
		Bear witness re: Safety prop
		Talk to Rachel or Alex if this prop is too much

	Info WG
		UAW covering part of the costs of 3000 buttons prev announced

	FAWG
		Need more members!  Need help passing out cash.
		Just about to have expenses on the wiki for OCT / NOV
		Meet Mon / Weds – Next meet is tomorrow at UDG
		Paul “Fetch” Carnes stuff – convoluted, missed part of it
		Possibility of becoming an LLC?
		Must have ownership of DBA
		Mediator was going to hold on to OB DBA pending our GA
		GA said “yes, do it” 
		Carnes sued.	
		Hopefully we will get the DBA back

	Signs WG
		Event on Thursday E51pm-5pm, in support of Occupy NH Primaries
		Small mishap on first night – our banner drop broke the window
		We’re fixing it. Talk to jay if you want to help.
		New Facebook page! “Occupy Boston Signs”. Submit images from 
		Dewey, from Marching, whatever.
	Safety
		Weekly Meetings
		Next meeting 6 PM on Thursday
		Meeting is about NH primary action
		Future meetings 1 hr Before last GA of the week.

	Screen Print
		E5 on Thursday, 1-5, prep stuff for NH Primaries
		Want to mass produce items.
		Facebook page exists, twitter page exists
		Soliciting ideas esp regarding upcoming elections

	Radio WG
		Merging OB Radio with ?Unregular Radio? 
		Listen  unregularradio.com 4:30-6:30
		Meeting Friday at E5 7-9
		Live 365.com has free options to play music which pays royalties
		Highest cost is $966 /mo 128kbit fm quality station up to 500 listeners, no more than 15k listeners / mo.

	DA WG
		Next Monday 6:00-8:30 at St. Paul’s, DA is hosting community night 
		Affinity group training

	CASA / Tiny Tents
		Saturday 3-5 in JP AT Deborah’s studio
		<get email address, missed it>
		National art day of action – 
		Tiny tent making meeting  <what time?>
		Tiny tents spreading everywhere
		Looking for Tiny Tinys people at NH

	SWG
		Some plans for the primaries
		Artistic / interactive ways to have a OB Presence there
		Jan 6th 6:30 on Friday at NH Primaries / Occupy NH
		SarcrasticBanker GA
		brett@occupyboston.com for info

	Inreach
		Next Meeting @ United for a fair Economy 5pm weds
		brett@occupyboston.com for info

	FWG
		Other Gas this week 
			Thurs at 7 @ Emmanuel
			Sun at 5 @ Community
		Community gatherings at St Paul’s Monday night 
		Community gathering nights are full through February 27th

	Women’s Caucus
		Wanting to Host a community forum, wanna reach out to women’s shelters
	 
	Occupy the Farms
		occupythefarms@gmail.com! Email list started
		reaching out to a lot of farms
		Need more people on the WG

	Spaces WG
		Looking for space for OB to work out of
		Next Meeting Friday @ E5 6:00pm please join

	Outreach WG
		Meeting at E5 at 6:00 
		Working with Vida Urbana, 
		Collaborating with SWG
		Trying to work on different models
		Town Hall WG is talking with the ideas WG
		Wednesday at 6:00 pm at boston Chinatown neighborhood center 

	Creating New Jobs
		Help people improve skills for jobs
		Meeting at E5 5-6:30 pm

Individual Announcements:
	Emma:
		Childcare provider
		Wants to care for childen for the OB community
		Providing care during the duration of the GA
		Trying to provide child care for people in general
		Any parents etc please email to help assess needs of community
		emmaobrien@gmail.com

	 Matt & Deborah 
		Occupy NH and Occupy Maine hosting Occupy The Primary
		Need Money
		Prop for food for those protesters coming soon
		ONH Impressed with First Night actions
		Wants the Citizen United WG to put displays at OTP
		Looking for help with tents, if you can offer help call 603-721-1886
		Sleeping spaces for 140 people, missed the number
		<Missed a whole bunch of numbers>
		Art Coordinator 603-540-8839
		Some sleeping arrangements w/ churches, some camping

	Elizabeth:
		Occupy Wall Street is travelling to other occupation
		Jan 25th to Deb 1st 
		talk to Stephanie, Elizabeth or Farhad if you can house them  or if you want to work with then

	Alex:
		We have a printer! Contact ingrammi6@gmail.com to use it

	David:
		Wants to make a Sand Mandala. Needs info on a place, and prices / materials
		City Life Vida Urbana Canvassing on the 14th
		Mass Occupy on the 7th Saturday at 3:00 at E5
		They didn’t talk much to Occupy Boston… lets occupy it
		Expedited Deportation prop amendments are being discussed w/ OEB
		OEB Friday at 6 YMCA Off Airport station at the blue line

	Matt:
		If you are a member of another occupation come talk to him

	Randy, from Occupy Harvard:
		Gates are open – you can walk in w/o producing an ID
		You can get into Harvard Yard
		Info Tent is staffed b/w 10 and 2
		Next GA Thursday the 5th at 6 pm in Harvard Yard
		Check out the video about fear and power on Occupy Harvard site 
		Discussion on the origin of Money <when?>
		Lots of people from foreign countries 
		FSU broadcasts

	John:
		Mass Occupy, E5, 3-5
		Try not to set up walls too quick, go in with love

	Brian:
		Warm love and greeting from Occupy Helsinki
		Description of Helsinki’s tents

	Ellen:
		Political Collaborative Working group
		Working to engage w/ people in the political system
		Work with the process while challenging it

	Elizabeth Again:
		OWS GA might be raided
		Global Rev has two locations eviction
		212-635-9675 is NYC Mayor’s number, yell at him
		
Proposals
	Facilitation temp checks on extending agenda process for the immediate future
	Temp check looks good.
	Going through agenda setting process

	Noah’s prop: 2 parts. First part is an introduction of a new hand signal to workshop / table a proposal.
	2nd part is a proposal to change 1 GA per week to a political action meetings using open spaces technology

	FAWG Prop: 90 minutes talk about expenses in 2011 and budget for 2012

	OTP Prop:$100 for food, materials, etc to help protest in OTP
	
	Order: Rollover (safety) then OTP prop then FAWG then Noah’s
	
	Safety Prop is first
		<description of our modified consensus process>
		Starting the proposal at amendments. Gunner will present it, then we, collectively,
		will take amendments then ask the GA to incorporate them

		Prop is for Safety regarding sexual assaults, Gunner reads it aloud. 

		Amendments (all of them, accepted and otherwise) over email:
		
		That the process only deal with people whose behavior is threatening or is verbally or physically abusive.
		
		Include medics / survivor advocacy
		
		Split 1a and 1b into two different props
		
		“Feeling unsafe in a sexual manner” is vague and can encompass rape and creepy dudes flirting too hard
		
		1 strike and you’re out policy

		
		Someone who’s been kicked out may petition to come back in.
		
		Sex Offender WG?

		Drop Section 1a. Zero tolerance. No GA Decision making.

		Breaking into small groups. ~8:30
		Back from Small Groups ~9:15
		Announcements: Medics and Wellness are available if you need help
		Also
		
		FA: Language that "sexual assault is not welcome at Occupy Boston" added
		FA: call it something other than the Sexual Assault Advocacy Group because it sounds like it's advocating Sexual Assault
		FA: Group should have responsibilty for a prevention and / or intervention 
		FAs from Rachel:
			1b should read "If an occupy boston activist finds that occupy boston activist has committed a grevious sexual misconduct..."
			group will advocate for both
			GA will consensus about whether to proceed w/ good neighbor agreement processs
			with the understanding that the proposal is a transitional solution, form WG to deal with this issue
		FA: Both survivor and offender have opportunity to speak in front of the GA or have a statement read
		FA: Address context of the proposal, that this proposal came out of incidents that occurred at Dewey Square <this is an amendment?>
		FA: "Survivor Advocacy WG", also Safety, Wellness, Medical, and Survivor Advocacy are a "Safety Cluster"
		FA: Announcement should be made "at that event" and discuss at the next GA
		FA: Language: "vote is dismissed" -> "if the GA votes not to take action against the offender"
		FA: Research the effectiveness etc of the Sex Offender Registry
		FA: amend language "trained in prevention" or "trained in caring for" 
		FA: Add Community Wellness and Safety back into the group
		FA: Don't bring to GA unless the groups deem it necessary
		FA: "Prevent it from happening". Also remarks that this is stupid
		FA: strike 1a and 1b and replace it with other language
		FA: Brand new WG to deal with this. 3,5,7 people to form a "review committee" to investigate any incidents, make proposal to GA on solutions
		FA: Section 1b: replace "level 3 sex offender" with "if they person has a history of committing child sexual abuse". 
		    Ban person from interacting with children at OB. Make parents aware of this person's history. If the person breaks the boundaries, ban the person immediately
		FA: Acknowledgement in the language that this can happen to anyone of any gender, skin color, sexual orientation, age, or class.
		FA: Zero Tolerance Policy 
		FA: Amend all language that reads "offender" and "victim" to "accused" and "accuser"
		FA: Language is too limiting, include non-consensual touching, partner violence, also affirm consensual touching
		FA: Nothing should happen without survivor consent, and also the GA should not be investigating a survivor's experience
		FA: This proposal is unnecessary, we should follow the Friendly Neighbor policy
		FA: Language that recognizes the deeply flawed legal system. Something that prevents witch hunts
		FA: Include sexual harassment, and partner / relationship abused
		FA: "they" should be some singular noun to clarify that the person who was assaulted is who should go to the committee
		FA: Shun all rapists and sex offenders.
		FA: Occupy should create a working group to develop an approach to deal with any harm.
		FA: "will be asked" should be "will not be asked", so that blocks will not allow offenders to stay
		FA: stop creating committees
		FA: set next thursday deadline for getting something done
		FA: Contact information for the survivor advocacy wg to be on OB website and avail to all WGs
		
		Facilitation tried to sort out all the amendments, and during that we went to individual stack
		
		Voted on: Preamble text. Passed.
		PoP on facilitation controlling the amendment process
		Vote on Title Change. CQ: Are you counting numbers? Answer: Yes. 
		Vote on replacing Part 1a and 1b with the "review committee" idea. 
		PoP it's time to clean up
		Lots of discussion of how to move forward. Should we have the proposer synthesize the amendments, or continue with the community process.
		A whole bunch of PoPs.
		PoP: Facilitators can't be proposers because it puts too much power in  hand
		CQ: How are we going to handle prioritizing the NHP prop? Greg answers: WG stipends could be used
		CQ: Can we have other issues first then move to this prop? A: We're gonna workshop this. 
		Suggestion: Lets allocate a finite amount of time to this per GA so it doesn't roadblock other shit
		CQ: What happened to us temp checking on amendments? 
		
	
		


	
Individual Stack (occurred in the middle of the prop):
	Noah: Getting together a proposal for an autonomous action,
		wants to set up simultaneous GAs in surrounding areas, follow spokes council model possibility,
		contact: ndmc@occupyboston.org, wants something together before Mass GA
	Robin: Hello! Occupy Memphis says hello. Occupy Memphis GAs are super fast. Robin recommends travelling in the south and midwest and visiting!
	Someone: Distributing media into public access TV, local media, we have 5 communities in Mass caring our media. www.pegmedia.org occupy boston account to get media
		contact j@occupyboston.org. Also, Occupy Boston TV is meeting after GA
	Martin: We don't have much of a trust system in Occupy Boston. We need to give each other more of a benefit of the doubt more. we should trust each other more.	
	Alex: Caught some flak for talking about depression. Discusses productive outlets for dealing with feelings, arts etc.
	Ashley: Occupy Buffalo says they love us!
	Ellen: Occupy The Planet environmental actions on and around earth day? Lets talk about it.
	Gunner: First, on Sunday GA brought up the idea of having a discussion of homelessness, housing issues, etc. Come talk to Gunner w/ to talk about that
		Mass Transgender Issues Coalition - video online dealing with issues of suicide
		45 videos up about trans people and the issues they face etc
	Brian: MLK Day is soon. Lets talk about MLK's views towards the end of his life e.g. view on the Viet Nam War. 
	       Idea for event for bringing forward this hidden history.
	Rachel: We spent a lot of time in meetings. We don't spend a lot of time reflecting on what we mean when we say "another world is possible" Lets do that more
		Lets have notebooks available at GA so we can compile those ideas.
	Someone: Talking about the Private Danny Chen action, OWS disrupters etc. We need to respect community organizations, let them take the lead etc. 
		Monday Nights, at 7, at the SEIU HQ 26 West Street, community building meeting
	Chaser: There's a difference between Politically Correct and Community Correct. Lets not focus on what's right in the community. 
	George: Describing the actually issue that started the Danny Chen action. 
	Elizabeth: #J17! Occupy Congress! The last national GA was great! 
	Alex B: Let's form working groups that come up with proposals, not come up with proposals that result in working groups
	Someone: These things are important, we should be talking about these things, they're not wastes of time
